A Streetcar Named Desire
...When she got there she met the brute Stan, and the side of New Orleans she hardly knew existed... Blanche, who wanted so much to stay a lady...
A Streeetcar Named Desire: The Original Director's Version is the Elia Kazan/Tennessee Williams film moviegoers would have seen had not Legion of Decency censorship occurred at the last minute. It features three minutes of previously unseen footage underscoring, among other things, the sexual tension between Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) and Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando), and Stella Kowalski's (Kim Hunter) passion for husband Stanley. Catch all of the classic - nominated for 12 Academy Awards - including Best Picture and winner of 4 - that introduced a new era of filmmaking. Step aboard this Streetcar.
Member Reviews
A Classic, but kind of long - SchaeferSchwartz311
Most classics are pretty long, but this one feels a little too long in my books. Most people going into this movie are just going to be waiting for the most famous line (made famous by Seinfeld), "STELLA!".
Brando is amazing, but he's hard to understand with that thick accent every once in a while. Like I said before, it was a bit looonnggg. At times the movie just feels like a play (which it was). You'd probably be better off just seeing it as a play, if it wasn't for such amazing actors in this rendition. Give it a shot, but I guarantee you, you probably won't watch it again.A Tennessee Williams Hurricane - jmunds
As a student who is training to be a member of the theatre world, I am constantly training in the works of Tennessee Williams. Therefore I am familar with the play, and am quite respectful of it, though I have never grasped the true brilliance of the work, for I have always been partial to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Now, the film version of that play is flawed and almost unfamilar to anyone who has read the stirring play, this film is the oppsite. I have read and done some studies of this play, and it has always seemed uninspiring. The movie however is alive a rippling. Brando gives quite the performance here. I do not need to expound on that fact. Liegh is equally if not more brilliant then him. Blanche as decribed in the opening few words is a moth, stanley a lion. There's is actually one moment stirringly presented by the direction of Kazan, at the end of the film where she actually gets trapped in the windows, like a moth. Here effete fakeness, expounded upon by the previous reciewer is in the character, there is only one moment when we see the human unaffected blanche, and that is in the final confrontation with Mitch, (heartfeltly played by Karl Malden.) Here she just drops into a chilling human tone, and this is one of the most terrfiying moments in film history. So her performance nothing short of fantastic. Kim Hunter though deserves top billing with both Brando, and Leigh. Her stella is perhaps the only realistic portrayal of a battered women on the screen, her exhileration for the lion, and sense of loyalty to him, and her break from him at the end, is something seen in every suburban home, that suffers this situation. In short, this film is a hurricane of feeling and performance, and I get the sense from the accounts of the original performances of this play, this movie captures it perfectly.Brando's Steamiest - FilmJunkie
What can you say about this classic that hasn't already been said? Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh at their best, he at his sexiest and most commanding physically, she in her best role since 1939's 'Gone With The Wind' shines as Blanche Dubois, the has-been drunk who comes to visit her sister in New Orleans. Brilliantly written by Tennessee Williams, the film may at times seem over-dramatic, but I prefer to see it as passionate and lively. This film is sweaty, sexual and reveals some of the best work these actors would ever do, quite an acheivement for 1951.
Member Reviews
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A Classic, but kind of long - SchaeferSchwartz311
Most classics are pretty long, but this one feels a little too long in my books. Most people going into this movie are just going to be waiting for the most famous line (made famous by Seinfeld), "STELLA!".
Brando is amazing, but he's hard to understand ...A Tennessee Williams Hurricane - jmunds
As a student who is training to be a member of the theatre world, I am constantly training in the works of Tennessee Williams. Therefore I am familar with the play, and am quite respectful of it, though I have never grasped the true brilliance of the work, ...Brando's Steamiest - FilmJunkie
What can you say about this classic that hasn't already been said? Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh at their best, he at his sexiest and most commanding physically, she in her best role since 1939's 'Gone With The Wind' shines as Blanche Dubois, the has-been ...